Marvel Cinematic Universe profile: A look at Rene Russo’s career

Rene Russo raises gods in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Frigga, mother of Thor.

Rene Russo made her first appearance of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Thor. As the matriarch of the Asgardian royal family, her scenes are mainly alongside Odin, Thor, and Loki. Frigga’s gracious demeanor acts as a foil to Anthony Hopkins’ assertive and authoritative attendance in the gleaming kingdom.

Rene Russo owes a lot of Frigga’s success in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the blocking of her character – how she carries herself, how she glides through the halls, and the company that she keeps to illuminate her importance. Small glances highlight her partiality for Thor. She defends her eldest in the wake of his banishment, but expresses deep concern for both her husband and adopted son; as the former falls into his Odinsleep and the latter learns of his true ancestry.

In Thor: The Dark World, Frigga meets Jane Foster and understands why her son has fallen in love with her, yet this ultimately leads to Frigga giving her life to protect Jane. MCU fans assumed The Dark World would be Rene Russo’s final film in the franchise, until she made a surprise appearance in Avengers: Endgame. Thor traveled back in time to retrieve the Reality Stone from Jane and bumps into his mother, where Russo shares proficient screen time with Chris Hemsworth; both are simultaneously heartfelt and blithe.

Frigga’s power, although carefully concealed, is somehow omnipresent. Although she physically fights against both the frost giants and the dark elves, we get the sense her true abilities extend to the spiritual and mystical, and that she may be all-knowing. She is aware of what is going on with Odin, Thor, and Loki and she never doubts that the Thor she confronts in Endgame is from the future. Her transcendent divination materializes from a combination of her standing within the royal Asgardian family and her background of being raised by witches.

A look back at Rene Russo’s career

Rene Russo has honed her skills for a few decades before joining the MCU. She has consistently been a supporting player throughout her career, where, just like in the MCU, her character provides emotional connections – as a wife, mother, or lover – to primary protagonists. Russo began this trend in the late 1980s with Major League, when she served as a romantic interest that Tom Berenger tried to win back as he competed for the MLB championship.

Her roles expand in the 1990s; in One Good Cop she is still the wife of the focus character (played by Michael Keaton), however she has a key part of the story that involves them adopting Keaton’s deceased partner’s children. Russo is then the romantic interest of Clint Eastwood in In the Line of Fire, but instead of playing a wife, she is a fellow secret service agent helping to guard the president from assassination.

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While Russo does some mainstream work in Get Shorty and Tin Cup, she stands out in the more serious subject matters of Outbreak and Ransom. In the former, Russo plays a scientist who gets infected with an airborne virus and steals several scenes from her award-winning male co-stars. In the latter, Russo is remarkable – both her and Mel Gibson are heartbreaking, exuding desperation as the parents of a kidnapped boy.

One of Russo’s most popular roles is opposite Gibson in the third and fourth Lethal Weapon movies where the pair have a lot of fun together. Their characters’ relationship develops over the course of both movies, starting out as colleagues and ending with marriage and a baby. Russo then has a string of duds around the turn of the century – The Thomas Crown Affair remake, the unwatchable Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, and the unfunny action-comedy Showtime. Two for the Money was a slight improvement in the mid-2000s, however Russo took a break from acting before returning to the big screen for Thor.

In the 2010s, aside from the MCU, Russo only appeared in a few forgettable comedies, and two of her husband Dan Gilroy’s three directorial efforts. Both Nightcrawler and Velvet Buzzsaw star Jake Gyllenhaal, yet one nails its dark tone perfectly while the second is a bit of a misfire. Nightcrawler is a modern-day noir work of cinema with exceptional acting from Gyllenhaal and Russo, along with a star-making turn by Riz Ahmed, and one of Bill Paxton’s last great performances. Russo meets the demand of the material’s sordid undertones as a TV news director who puts on an air of professionalism while gradually snooping lower to hit her ratings.

Rene Russo’s Top 10 Movie Roles

1. Nina Romina in Nightcrawler
2. Kate Mullen in Ransom
3. Dr. Robby Keough in Outbreak
4. Lorna Cole in the Lethal Weapon series
5. Frigga in the MCU
6. Lilly Raines in In the Line of Fire
7. Dr. Molly Griswold in Tin Cup
8. Karen Flores in Get Shorty
9. Toni Morrow in Two for the Money
10. Lynn Wells in Major League

Rene Russo’s limited filmography (compared to most actors that have been in the business for 30 years) permits her MCU role to make it into her top 5 film performances. Considering Frigga is killed during the first half of Thor: The Dark World and she only has a few moments with her son in Avengers: Endgame, Rene Russo still leaves a positive impression with fans of the franchise.

Rene Russo is unlikely to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, unless Thor or Loki’s upbringing is further explored through flashbacks… or time-travel.

What is your favorite performance from Rene Russo? Let us know in the comments below!